National Taiwan University, founded by the Japanese as Taihoku Imperial University in 1928, is the country's most prestigious campus and a pleasant green space to wander in the Gongguan area. The signature sight is Royal Palm Boulevard, a long avenue of tall palms running from the main gate to the colonial-era library, flanked by red-brick Japanese-era faculty buildings.
The campus is open to the public and popular with cyclists and strollers; Drunken Moon Lake, tucked among the science buildings, is a quiet spot. The surrounding Gongguan district has the bookshops, cheap restaurants and live-music bars of a university quarter.